'Bournemouth seal survival with a game to spare'

The final home game of the season with points still needed might have been a tense affair, but Bournemouth delighted in the early May sunshine and never played with any fear.

Peter Bell

5th May 2018

Cherries put on a performance

Eddie Howe had said that the team needed to put on a performance after recent weeks and the team did just that with plenty of support from the fans, who were given clappers to make sure noise levels were kept high for 90 minutes.

The players set out to cause Swansea problems with the running power of Ryan Fraser and the ball craft of Lewis Cook.

It was an enjoyable day for Bournemouth fans to see their players go about their work with an intensity that they had found difficult to muster in recent games. Bournemouth found a control that has been elusive and a assion that grew through the game.

Callum Wilson may have wished he had buried one of his chances but, with the team pressing forward whenever it could, Swansea could rarely get a spell where they could exert great pressure on Bournemouth’s goal for more than a few moments.

Fraser is a little gem

The rise of Fraser is one of Bournemouth’s great stories. He is a perfect role model and just gets on with the job. He doesn’t always get the headlines, but his quiet and unassuming manner hides an athlete that works incredibly hard.

His goal was simple in plan but pressurised to execute well and it’s no wonder that the fans love him so much as he keeps calm when an opportunity presents itself.

With Junior Stanislas injured, it has fallen on Fraser to be involved in most of the free kicks and he hasn’t disappointed.

Begovic gets his clean sheet

It will probably go almost unnoticed that Asmir Begovic has finally managed to follow up the clean sheet he had back in January against Chelsea with another one against Swansea.

To be fair it is a clean sheet that the whole back four earned, but Begovic had to make some critical saves in the first half from close range and - apart from some early issues with playing out from the back - he had a tidy game overall.

It would have been hard on Begovic and the defenders not to get the reward of a clean sheet and to win the game 1-0 was perhaps a bigger boost for the team than if they had won it in a more swashbuckling 3-2 fashion.

Manager’s thoughts – Expectations delivered

Eddie Howe admitted there were dark times last week when the club lost against Southampton and he felt very emotional about securing Premier League survival.

The expectations he puts on himself and the team are very high, and he felt the team was much more on the front foot in this game.